Your Right to Know

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoCourtney Hergesheimer | DispatchGOP U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel, left, chats with Tom Cummings during a tour of the Smiths Medical facility in Dublin. Cummings is the director of operations at the medical-devices company.

An “end to partisan bickering” or just the beginning of a debate that will be decided Nov.
6?

Just as yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold virtually all of President Barack
Obama’s health-care law figures to affect the presidential election, it could also play a role in
the race between Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and GOP challenger Josh Mandel.

It was Brown who said yesterday that he hopes the Supreme Court’s ruling “will put an end to the
partisan bickering so that we can continue our focus on jobs and improving the economy.”

It was Mandel who said, “The debate’s about Congress, U.S. Senate and the president and the bad
decision they made to pass this law in the first place.”

Mandel’s comment came in an interview with
The Dispatch after his speech to about 60 employees at Smiths Medical, a medical-devices
company in Dublin.

As he often does during speeches, Mandel said he would not be beholden to Republican Party
bosses as a U.S. senator. When asked his thoughts on Chief Justice John Roberts, a GOP conservative
judge who joined the liberal contingent of the court in writing the majority opinion, Mandel said, “
I respectfully disagree with him.

“As United States senator, I will do everything I can to ensure that justices that come through
the Senate on their way to the bench are folks who have high integrity and who understand the
Constitution.”

Mandel toured the 387-employee Smiths Medical facility before addressing some workers in a
conference room. During his speech, he decried a provision of the Affordable Care Act that imposes
an excise tax on medical-device manufacturers, arguing that “this tax will be a job killer for
companies like yours.”

Tom Cummings, director of operations at Smiths, was asked after Mandel’s speech if the 2.3 p
ercent excise tax would cause the company to lose jobs. He said, “I can’t comment on that right
now.”

Mandel later said he didn’t know specifically if Smiths would lose jobs because of the law but
said Cleveland-area companies such as InvaCare and Steris Corp. expressed those concerns to him.
Mandel also ripped Brown for casting the “deciding vote” to pass the health-care law in 2010 and
referred to it as likely the “biggest tax increase in history” — statements independent
fact-checking organizations have deemed false.

Brown, who does support the law, sent out his statement through his Senate office and not
through his campaign. He mentioned some of the more popular provisions of the law, such as free
screenings, extended coverage for adult children and coverage for people with pre-existing
conditions.